I'm on a Mac so can't play at the moment either, but I just wanted to say that I too find it really cute-looking!
Graphics and animations and designs are so good.
We'll make sure to eventually have a mac version too
thanks for your comment!
Gave it a shot. It's cute! But in the current state you're pretty much done after two, three tries, after figuring it out. I'm not sure how much you can expand it, even with more options. It's fun while it lasts though.
Would be a great mini-game in a series of winter-themed minigames, perhaps? Or maybe I'm thinking too much like a jaded adult, maybe younger kids would love to play this on repeat (if it has clear enough instructions for them)
Thanks for playing and responding. Very good point. One thing that might help with this is that we have a festival hub where you play after each gameplay-loop. So you build a snowman in the morning (there will be 10 days, with each their own theme for the snowman) and in the late afternoon-evening you'll walk around, free-build some snowman, talk with characters, listen to the festival radio and there will be a scoreboard there next to an "Igloo for Winners", which will only be available after x amount of wins. So this gameplay loop is part of a bigger story that will play out over 10 days.
Either way, your feedback really helps and makes a lot of sense. Basically I agree with it, but just wanted to give you the whole picture!
Thanks so much.
Btw, the bit about children playing this is interesting... I don't think it's our focus audience, but then again, we're also not sure what is. Good stuff to think about.
Hi moonmoonmark,
I played your game and recorded my thoughts:
Wow! Thanks so much for doing this. This really helped us a lot. Seeing someone play really pointed out some flaws and spots to improve on to us! Especially the controls is something we should really make more clear. It was really funny to see you play too at some points. Especially when Snailman took all your pirate items hahah! Thanks a lot, we really enjoyed watching this and this will improve the game x100
If you're curious btw how we think this idea can be expanded, pls read my response above
Congrats on the art, it is gorgeous and minimalistic, I like it. Is that a pumpkin hat :D ?
Now, I will put on my devils advocat hat (no harm intended)
I may have overlooked some things because I kept tabing out to take notes.
Okay here we go:
1) Nice art, though you will have a lot of people dismissing it as "a game for children" with this art style. Not sure it that's your intended audience.
2) It would be nice to be able to check the controls in the settings (had to tab to itch.io to take a look). Just a minor thing.
The root cause for my confusion with the controls was the I was hitting space like a mad man but nothing happended until I realised that I can only start to roll snowballs in certain spots that are marked by a tiny piece of extra snow. I think I was lucky to find it. First I thought I was too stupid to use the controls (maybe I am ^^).
3) I was not aware that there was a timer at first (only realised once they said "only # seconds left"). If there is a timer please show it. In hindsight I wondered why there was a 3,2,1 countdown in the beginning. That should have tipped me off, yet it didn't. Not sure if such snowman competitions are common where you are from. They are something new for me so maybe it is just a lack of previous knowledge on my part.
UPDATE: okay i just realised (while watching "jbarrios"s video) that it says "time limit" in the very first text. So I am guilty of not reading it all as well as I should have.
4) Some thoughts on the legidibility of the text.
The text expands while it is written and thus changes position (line breaks!). It may look cute as an effect but makes reading very cumbersome.
The text is all caps. I know this seems to be all the rage nowadays and the font is nice but it makes text a lot harder to read. Is it truely necessary to have it all caps?
I remember a nice talk from SpryFoxs Daniel Cook (
https://youtu.be/I911r6dBeaA?t=160) where he talks about his experience with text in games. The gist: nobody reads text and if they do then only about 7-10 words at most. I am not totally sure if it applies to this game but it may be worth a watch (it's funny too).
5) Where is the fullscreen mode :D ... Oh, it's in the options, never mind then.
6) Also this error happened (was hitting space verociously in front of the (?) shop/waggon trying to get a snowball rolling):
###########################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event
for object oControl:
Variable <unknown_object>.whatface(100210, -2147483648) cannot be resolved.
at gml_Object_oControl_Draw_64
###########################################################################
gml_Object_oControl_Draw_64 (line -1)
7) No sure about the controls but maybe Esc to get out of the shop might be nice. I was unable to exit the shop and tried with Esc but that opens the menu. You can still have the game open the menu with Esc once the submenu (backpack) is closed.
8 ) Woah okay, that walking spider table is creeping me out. You sure it fits the mood of the game (I might be biased, I don't like spiders)?
9) Maybe it would be a nice idea to let them judge all the other snowmen first to increase the suspense. You could also make the snowmen the better the closer they are to you (also for suspense).
I also want to mention that I have read somewhere once that you should not do what the playertesters tell you to "change" but rather look for the root cause and fix that. Nobody knows your game better than you.
Hope this was helpful and I did not hurt your feelings too much.
It's always hard to get ones baby criticized
Hey thanks a looooot for your detailed response. This is so helpful, omg.
- kids aren't really our target audience, so good point to think about.
- controls in settings is a great idea! We've added a tutorial to make the snowheaps clear, you're right in that that should've been explained!
- Thanks for your video on text in games, will check it out!
- Wow, great thought on searching for the root of the problem instead of taking things too literally. Briliant!
- You have not hurt my feelings at all. I think you've actually made sure my feelings will be hurt a little less when the game eventually releases!
T H A N K YOU!
Developer
